I thrice met a girl named Mariah

I just met a girl named Maria And suddenly I found how Wonderful a sound can be… — Richard Beymer as Tony singing ecstatic after meeting Natalie Wood as Maria in the movie version of the musical West Side Story

I also met a girl but she was named not Maria but Mariah… as in Mariah Carey. I met her not just once or twice but thrice in three different cities, first in 1999 in Hong Kong where she promoted her album Rainbow, the second was in 2008 in Tokyo where she promoted her album E=MC2 and the third was in 2009 in Seoul where she promoted her album Butterfly.

Together with journalists from the region, I found Mariah to be so grounded, showing no star complex at all, so soft-spoken that sometimes she seemed to talk in a whisper and that was not due to jetlag. She was real, nothing put-on whatsoever.

But more than that, I treasure the grains of wisdom I gathered from those three close encounters and I’m sure Conversations readers will likewise learn a lot from them and perhaps pass them on to whoever will treasure them, too.

We, journalists, were in bed with Mariah for the Hong Kong interview at her suite at The Hyatt. She was tired from the day’s extended meeting-and-greeting with fans. “You wouldn’t mind sitting on the floor around my bed, would you?” she cooed. Of course, we did not!

The next time in Tokyo, Mariah reclined ala-Cleopatra on a couch while answering questions. She was accommodating.